Bird call!

Hello family and friends,

I am officially starting to worry about getting the nursery set for our baby boy. A colleague at work just had her first granddaughter, and she came one month early!!!!!!!!!!! That would be like our baby being born around Christmas!!!!!!!!! I am not ready!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, this is what we need from you: handmade bird art, or bird pictures, or purchased art with birds. Our nursery will have one wall with lots of hanging frames, and we thought it would be cute to have the bird theme that has been running our lives be a part of the nursery too. Of course, we could get all of these various sizes and types of art on our own, but it would be cool to tell our baby boy which pictures came from which relatives. If you were going to make some art, or enlist your offspring to make art, the nursery colors are rich blue, cream, and dark brown. Ideally, different sizes would be best, like you could do a series of all small ones, or one bigger one, don't feel like you have to stick with 5x7. Oh, and we will frame the pictures, you just send us the art.

Thanks guys! Maybe we should start painting soon... or we can just make mom and dad do it when they come out in a week, haha!

ps- We had our 24 week appointment today (even though I am almost 26 weeks along) and everything is progressing well! We got to hear the baby's heart beat, but no ultrasound this time.

Baby CC - 21 weeks

On friday, we took off school to go to our 20 week ultrasound, even though Mary was really at 21 weeks. This was a very eventful trip! Not only did we get to see our baby from multiple views and angles, but found out that it's going to be a BOY! Even the radiology technician said that this would have been a hard one to hide the gender...hehe. Below are some great pics...we can't wait to meet him! Also, mary has been feeling him kick and squirm a lot, but not on the outside until last night! We both felt him kicking...it was amazing.

Looking right at us...with his left hand up by his ear

Imagine as if he is sitting on a glass table, the 2 round things are his butt cheeks, and the thing in between is well....his thing!

We caught him opening and closing his mouth!

Side profile of head

Bottom of his feets

Kitchen: Phase 1 DONE!

Construction is finally over for Kitchen: Phase 1! Our contractor was done last thursday, then Mary and I spent the weekend getting things back in order....painting (only Justin), building new shelves, organzing, etc. Below are some before and after pics so you can see some of the biggest changes. It has made such a BIG difference in terms of space and accessibility in the kitchen. We can't wait for Phase 2 to start (new floor, cabinets, and breakfast bar), but we are so glad to have our house back to normal for a little while. Thanks for checking it out!

BEFORE: View from kitchen entrance

AFTER: View from kitchen entrance

BEFORE: View from old laundry area

AFTER: View from old laundry area

BEFORE: Location of fridge

AFTER: Old location of fridge

Goodbye appliances...we had a scheduled appliance pick-up by the city, but they never came, so a dumpster diver took them all!

Cooking one last time (pancakes)

BEFORE: Old stove

AFTER: New stove

BEFORE: Old laundry area

AFTER: New laundry area (new wash/dry & utility sink in pantry)

New location of fridge (old laundry area)

Old location of water heater

New built-in shelves that Justin made (old location of water heater). Mary blames her big belly on the fact that it was the end of the day...I beg to differ.

New paint job

New wash/dry and utility sink

Old fridge now in the garage, and new location of water heater

Phase One, Days Two-?

Phase one of contracted work is officially done! We wanted to post a little each day, but some days had not much progress (like attic work), while others had big progress. So here is all of the contracted work finished! The appliances are all in the correct spots now, and we must say that we never knew how big of a difference it would make. We are excited to finish the work on our end to get this project wrapped up. Here are things we still want to do: finish painting all the old shades of yellow and orange and dingy cream, build shelves where the water heater used to be, find smaller shelving units for under the window, and buy baskets and organizers for this in-between phase. We have also been brainstorming wall hangings for this area, and we are not quite sure yet what we should do there... any suggestions? Keep in mind that we have a very retro floor pattern still going on. More pics coming of painting and refrigerator moved.

Fur wall to house all the new pipes (water, and gas)

Old Stove....will kinda miss this :(

New stove...sooooo shiny and nice. They piped into the existing gas line in the crawl space, it's so great to have a gas stove again!

Pregnant Mary in semi-done kitchen

Old location for water heater...taking up much needed space

Water heater gone (now in garage)...and drywall done on the right.

New stacked washer/dryer and utility sink to go in on the right of it

Drywall done over fur wall, and primer added

Kitchen: Phase 1 Day 1

The kitchen work has officially begun! If you don't remember, here is the run-down of phase one. Pictures that follow represent the first day of work.
PHASE ONE:
- getting new and relocating all appliances (including dishwasher!, washer and dryer, fridge, and stove)
- moving water heater to garage
- taking out the drop ceiling in the pantry/laundry area
- fan in the bathroom (THANK GOODNESS!!!! Living with Justin without a bathroom fan has not been fun!)

Old pantry, ready for washer, dryer and utility sink.
(Like the floor? That doesn't go until phase 2)

Old laundry area, new area for fridge and pantry (the white door on the right is the door to the new laundry area shown in first picture). This area is framed for running pipes and electrical to the washer, dryer, utility sink, and water heater. They had to make this wall because the crawl space doesn't extend to this area.

Baby bump!

Baby update time!!

Here are two of our monthly pictures to document Mary's belly growth! She says she feels like she is a lot bigger than she looks, especially since there doesn't look like there is a big different between the two photos

4 months - September 2010

3 months - August 2010

14'er!

I thought I would use the 3 day weekend to my advantage, and go climb a 14'er! So on Sunday Tim, Krista, and myself drove up to Guanella pass and climbed Mt. Bierstadt (14,097ft.). I climbed this one last summer during the Christensen reunion, but Tim & Krista have never done one before, and figured this would be a good place to start. The 3 of us attempted Quandary a while back, but we were thwarted by way too much snow, and "blow you off the mountain" winds. So they were excited to hike on a nice day. We had a great hike, with amazing weather. Thanks for checking it out!

In parking lot before hike with Tim & Krista's Dog, Pike!

Almost 1/2 way there

Tim & Krista trekking it

Taking a break, it was sooo nice just to lay in the sun!

This is what Tim does when he gets to the top

Tim, Krista, and Pike at the top!

Me at the top

There was a very interesting group at the top, they were cooking hot dogs, and brought up a pony keg! I was jealous.

Beautiful view from the top